The Autodesk enthusiast exile

I am hosting my own site and blog now. It has been my desire to create a site that has better content, news, information and benefit to the Autodesk Design and Manufacturing community. More storage and flexibility was required. This site will be discontinued over time.

3D Connexion released the newest creation in their line 3D navigation tools, the Space Pilot Pro. I have always been fascinated by 3D Connexion’s tools, as they clearly are unique items. However I kept them at a distance because of a few factors: Price, Uneasiness, and Dependency.

If I can’t have it, I usually won’t go play with it. This keeps my marriage in tact as well.

Price – I believe that at least 50% of the users out there know something about these devices, and know they are fairly expensive. Well, this is partially true. If you get in at sale time, you can pickup a notebook model for 80 USD. I don’t think there are any buttons, just view mobility. That’s still a nice item for 80 bucks. The new deluxe model comes in at 500 USD. That’s pricey.

Uneasiness – Mostly my innate lack of desire to change something that works; namely the way I have been doing it. The 3 button mouse and an ALT key covers a lot of ground. I watched some field experts navigate quite well with a 3 button mouse, and there was no lack of speed. Which brings us to the last item.

Dependency – Ever since Vibrant Graphics dumped us old people, I have been very jaded about dependency on non-OEM functionality. I still wrote C++/C# code, but usually this was to cover things that were reasonably impossible with other methods. No odd command aliases, no large menu configurations, mostly out of the box. This way I would never be bent over the way I was in 2000, when I had to relearn the interface.

AU2009

These 3D mice have always been super-popular at AU. So I decided to do a few 3D Connexion promotions for the upcoming Tekni Creative Inventor training, and the powers that be agreed to pay for the mice. I however was not one of the lucky ones that will get said mice.

The curiosity was killing me. While I’d like to try it in Inventor, my question is how will it work in Civil?

So my associates introduced me to some people at 3D Connexion, and Walt and Company, and they kindly agreed to let me play with one of the new toys. During the last discussion, they asked what I intended to do with it, and I told them I intended to review the product in different environments, and then publish the results. A few days later a new Space Pilot Pro ended up on my door step. Like a kid in a candy shop.

The Box

What came in the box was a folder from the company, containing some fact sheets, Company Rep contact info, the driver CD, and the Space Pilot Pro….and a note that said basically “If you need any assistance, please call.”

7/8/2009

This has been a pain in numerous people’s sides for a long time. One day you love it and the next day you hate it.

The DWG Launcher

This gizmo is the thing that loads the drawings from remote requests, based on the registered DWG extension. AcLauncher.exe

Since Autodesk is trying to spread it’s trademarked use of DWG to numerous platforms, it needs some flexible way to allow users to open the DWG easily through explorer and other applications.

How this works

When the OS sees a DWG file request sent, it uses the DWG registered app to open it with. In this case it is the DWG Launcher. The application uses registry entries to figure out which version of what application to use. It is fairly simple, except there is nothing evident about it, and it gets fouled up.

The registry settings governing this work something like a flow chart:

Here is a problem some VISTA users have. The DWG import wizard viewer “Selective import” control is empty. One reason is of course VISTA, but another may be because of constant uninstall and reinstalls of Design Review. I have not confirmed the latter, but I do suspect it.

I went looking for some info on this, and found the ‘known issues’ list in numerous places.

The DWG import wizard viewer “Selective import” control is empty: You may notice in the DWGIN wizard’s viewer page that the “Selective import” control is empty (this control lists the layers in a DWG file). This indicates that a module needed by the viewer is not registered (because a lack of user privileges).

In Click Start > locate the program for “Command Prompt, ” and right-click it as run the program with the option “Run as administrator”

To register You cannot start the cmd.exe from Run…” menu for this procedure. When the command prompt is active, navigate to where dxoemviewer.arx is located (c:\program files\aoemview 2008, by default), and then enter the following:

I have a reasonable amount of twisted workarounds, but very little every day constructive examples. So, I as thinking of AU (as ALWAYS) and was reminded of Dan Banach drilling productivity tips at us, and Horizontal and Vertical constraints were mentioned numerous times (seriously, take his class at AU).

Whether you are in training or didn’t pay attention to this feature, you should consider it.

This Horizontal constraint should be applied to geometry that passes through the horizontal plane from another reference feature. Refer to the image below. I’d like the sketched geometry to be evenly distributed across this part. The best way is with constraints.

Content Center Family Editing

We need to change some settings in the Content Center Family just written. Navigate through he Content Center Editor to the new Family. Right Click, and select the Family Table option. The family parameters dialog will appear.

The following are examples that I used, however you will undoubtedly have differences and variations at your company that need to be adopted.

Content Center Category Review

We need do some snooping. We need to know where we are publishing the content. The Countersunk Bolts Category is our target. It would be ideal to publish our content to the sub category of ‘Wood Screws’ but alas, this cannot be. You see the Design Accelerator has a limitation (I’ve heard this before….limitations), in that it will not use content below a certain sub-category.

The Bolted Connection Generator will only read from the Categories:

Countersunk

Hex Head

Hex Head – Flanged

Round Head

Set Screws

We cannot file our content appropriately and get the desired outcome. Once again we have to hack up a beautiful landscape, but the benefits are worth it. (I am still convinced that I will find the directing XML, and modify the strings to go deeper.)

The publishing process will take our part, and store it with the iPart members as members of the new Content Center family. The family will take on the properties of the parent category, and we need to know about that criteria. We have to direct the publishing to map the iPart parameters to the appropriate category fields.

Let’s take a look at the Category Properties for the Fasteners->Bolts->Countersunk sub-category. You should see the list of data contained in the category, that gets passed down to the individual families contained therein. It’s a form of inheritance. Notice the Mapping field, and the Optional and Required options. The required settings are brought in from the parent category, and cannot be left out of the mapping. Continue reading →

John Evans

Fun in Kanazawa with my nephew Shido !

My name is John Evans, and I am an Autodesk Inventor and Civil 3D Certified Professional. I currently work for Gustin, Cothern, and Tucker, Inc., a Civil Engineering firm in Niceville, Florida. There I manage the Civil 3D seats, training, troubleshooting, construction data management, and occasionally programming. I provide consulting services for product design, and serve as a consulting author at Tekni Consulting, where I write content for Inventor training courses. I attended Autodesk University 2006, 2007, and 2009 in Las Vegas.

I am a veteran with extensive experience in Aerospace maintenance, Mechanical engineering and manufacturing, and Civil Engineering/Surveying, both field and office, and I speak English and Japanese. When I am not answering questions here, I am with my family, writing training material, proving a new design, studying Japanese, or in my machine shop.

If I could do more of something besides blogging to everyone, it would probably be…

At Autodesk University!!!!!

with loving wife and her monster Nikon while I watch my kids, spending time with my Japanese Friends, in Japan, Cutting parts in my machine shop, Playing poker, Swinging a sword in Kenjustu class, spending time with my 2 best friends Jamie and Jason, and learning something new.

"In God We Trust"… Secretary of the Treasury Salmon P. Chase

“It’s not that I’m so smart, it’s just that I stay with problems longer”…Albert Einstein

“Any man who can drive safely while kissing a pretty girl is simply not giving the kiss the attention it deserves”…Albert Einstein

“Honor isn’t about making the right choices. It’s about dealing with the consequences” … Midori Koto